Decisions Improve Health System Affordability, Promote Health System Transformation, and Improve Sustainability of Access to Rural Health Care
Vermont Business Magazine The Green Mountain Care Board (GMCB) has completed its annual review of Vermont hospital budgets for Fiscal Year 2026, voting on budgets for Vermont’s 14 general hospitals. Consistent with the Board’s statutory mission and budget guidance, the decisions balance financial sustainability, especially for rural hospitals, with the need to keep care affordable for Vermonters.
This year’s FY26 benchmarks included:
- Commercial price growth: maximum 3.0 %
- Net patient revenue growth: maximum 3.5 %
- Operating expense growth: maximum 3.0 %
The Board evaluated each hospital’s financial health, cost-containment efforts, and community needs in light of Vermont’s ongoing health care affordability challenges, including double-digit premium increases and significant expense growth since the pandemic.
“This year’s budgets reflect our commitment to support hospital stability while ensuring that State-wide healthcare spending reflects our need to improve healthcare affordability. GMCB actions hold overall growth to levels that protect Vermonters from unsustainable healthcare costs while preserving access to high-quality care close to home,” said Owen Foster, GMCB Chair. “Importantly, GMCB’s decisions hold the UVM Health Network administration accountable for having transferred critical dollars out of Vermont to cover for the Network’s inability to sustainably operate its New York hospitals. We will not allow the Health Network administration to use Vermont’s limited healthcare dollars to subsidize its inability to obtain adequate reimbursement for its critical New York hospitals.”
Statewide FY26 Decisions
- System-Wide Growth Held to Guidance.
- Across Vermont’s 14 general hospitals, aggregate net patient revenue (NPR) growth remains within the 3.5% benchmark set in the FY26 Hospital Budget Guidance.
- Hospitals submitted budgets reflected a system-wide commercial rate increase of 2.6%.
- GMCB action resulted in a -2.0% decrease system-wide, a nearly -4.7% decrease in prices for commercially insured Vermonters.
- System-wide, the Board reduced proposed budgets by over $94.5M, which was targeted at lowering commercial insurance premiums while at the same time protecting access to rural hospitals.
- In an effort to reduce administrative burden, and in recognition of complying with GMCB budget guidance, the Board exempted several community hospitals (Grace Cottage, North Country, and Northeastern Vermont Regional) from budget hearings and approved their budgets as submitted.
- Including those exempt hospitals, 8 hospital budgets were approved as submitted.
UVMMC Rate Reductions Based on Health Network Operations and Out-of-State Financial Transfers
As part of today’s votes, the Board approved the University of Vermont Medical Center’s (UVMMC) FY26 budget with targeted modifications to ensure Vermont dollars remain focused on Vermont patients. While acknowledging UVMMC’s critical role, Board members voiced deep concern that the medical center lacks full control of its finances and that the University of Vermont Health Network has shifted significant assets away from Vermont’s flagship institution for use outside the state.
UVMMC's net patient revenue request was cut by $88.5 million, or -4.5%, while systemwide, GMCB cut NPR by $94.6 million, or -2.5%.
The Board also set commercial rate growth below the hospital’s original request, aligning the decision with statewide affordability targets and addressing the Health Network’s history of transferring Vermont healthcare dollars out of state.
These actions, together with decisions for all other Vermont hospitals, advance the Board’s mission to ensure a sustainable, affordable healthcare system for individuals, families, and employers across the state.
About: The Green Mountain Care Board (GMCB) is a 5-member, independent Board created in 2011 with an ambitious mission to drive system-wide improvements in access, affordability, and quality of healthcare to improve the health of Vermonters. Through public meetings, the GMCB ensures a transparent approach to healthcare regulation and a voice for stakeholders, including healthcare organizations, clinicians, and members of the public. With a holistic, data driven approach, the GMCB carries out its regulatory duties, supports innovation in healthcare delivery and payment reform, and serves as an important resource for independent, transparent analyses of Vermont’s healthcare system performance.
9.12.2025. Montpelier, VT – Green Mountain Care Board
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